A KIRKLEES soldier has been badly hurt in bomb blast that claimed the life of his colleague and friend.

Private Matthew Light – son of Kirklees Tory leader Clr Robert Light – was on foot patrol with the 1st Battalion Yorkshire Regiment in Helmand Province on Friday afternoon when an explosion killed Pte John King who was walking next to him.

Pte King, also 19, comes from Darlington and was officially named yesterday.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “They were on patrol with the Afghan National Security Forces to increase security around the village of Llara Kalay in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province.

“The patrol had identified insurgents in the area and had begun to search and clear a number of compounds in the village.

“The Afghan National Army members of the patrol came under fire from insurgents and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers moved forwards to support them. During the firefight Pte King was caught in the blast from an Improvised Explosive Device and was killed in action despite the best efforts of medics at the scene.’’

Nineteen-year-old Pte Light, who was leading the expedition in the Nahr-e Saraj district, suffered shrapnel wounds to his legs and was rushed to hospital at Camp Bastion for emergency surgery.

His left leg has been more severely injured than the right. The explosion has also left Pte Light totally deaf in one ear. Medics do not yet know whether he will regain some or all of his hearing.

After the emergency operation Pte Light’s medical condition was downgraded, which is a positive sign. However, he will remain in Camp Bastion for the next few days as a second operation is imminent.

His family – father Robert, mother Sharon and younger sisters Rebecca and Jessica – are hoping he will be well enough to be flown back to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham by the end of the week. The hospital specialises in battlefield injuries.

News of his injuries arrived at the family home in Birkenshaw at 5pm on Friday when a man from the Army knocked on the door.

Clr Light said: “I was outside in the garden with one of my daughters when we saw a man in a suit at the door. He said: ‘I’m from the Army, you need to sit down.’ It is a situation where you think the worst.

“It’s all a blur, but Matt was the lucky one. I feel so bad for the family of the soldier who was killed and on this occasion, we were so lucky. We are all very emotional about things at the moment.

“I spoke to Matt on Saturday in the hospital. He is very shaken and very upset about his comrade. He has lost a good friend – one of his mates.

“He is still in shock, but the soldiers do go through fantastic training. They work together as a team and when something like this happens, it is a huge shock. Matt was the man next to him.

“He feels very lucky that he has survived, but is devastated about his comrade.”

Pte Light is suffering considerable pain, but is able to walk with crutches.

Speaking of his son’s injuries, Clr Light said: “IEDs are crude, horrible things and God knows what they put in them. The surgeons will go back into his wounds for a second operation to check that everything has been removed and that they are clean before he comes home.

“The deafness often happens in an explosion, but we are hopeful that Matt’s hearing will come back over time.”

Clr Light added: “The medics at Camp Bastion have been brilliant and the Army is very good at dealing with families at times of tragedy. The Army support has been top class.”

The Army has promised to inform the Light family as soon as Pte Light is flown out of Camp Bastion to Birmingham. The family will then travel down to the Midlands to be at the hospital to see him as soon as he has been admitted.

Clr Light added: “Obviously after what Matt has gone through he needs his family around him and we will be there for him.”

Pte Light always wanted to be a soldier from being a young boy and was a member of Batley Army Cadets for many years.

As soon as he was able to leave school aged 16 he went to army college in Harrogate for a year before joining the Yorkshire Regiment and embarking on his 10 weeks of basic training at Catterick.

He then went straight out to the Regiment’s base at Oxford Barracks, Münster, in Germany.

Pte Light’s tour of Afghanistan started in early October and the regiment is now halfway through its six-month tour of duty.

Major James Kennedy, who commands B Company, 1st Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, said: “Pte King was exactly the kind of soldier you want in your company.

“He was gritty, determined, hard-working and quick to lend a hand to anyone who needed it.

“But above all of this he did everything with a sense of humour. He was never short of a quip or a joke or a cheeky toothless grin. Never the smartest turned-out soldier, but we wouldn’t have swapped him for the world.’’

The 1st Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment is a Light Infantry battalion that operates with minimal transport and sometimes almost entirely on foot.

The Battalion is equipped with the full range of small arms, mortars, anti-tank weaponry and surveillance equipment.

The Yorkshire Regiment was formed in June 2006 from the amalgamation of The Prince of Wales’ Own Regiment of Yorkshire (14th/15th Foot), The Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales’ Own Yorkshire Regiment) (19th Foot), The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (33rd/76th Foot) and Territorial Army units.

A total of 394 British troops have died since the start of operations in Afghanistan in 2001.